1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a gaming system, and more specifically to a gaming system which is capable of controlling a process of a game (such as a card game and a roulette) played in a player-against-computer manner in a casino or the like gaming facility, detecting cheatings, recording in real time the transaction accompanied with transfer of bets and payouts etc. resulting from exchange of casino chips, and then counting and reflecting, onto a balance sheet in real time, occurrence and transfer of assets as actual economic activities between a player and a casino.
2. Description of the Related Art
Games played in conventional casinos are classified roughly into (1) a human-against-human type (for example, a dealer-against-player type) and (2) a human-against-computer type (for example, a player-against-slot machine type).
Table games such as poker, baccarat and roulette fall into the above classification of (1). In order to avoid cheating during the process of the game, behaviors of a dealer need to have no influence upon game results.
Meanwhile, in the conventional casinos, players exchange cash etc. for casino chips at an exchange office, a cashier, or the like place, the casino chips are treated as objects having a value in casinos, and games such as roulette and poker are played by exchange of casino chips.
When a player wins a game, the player is provided with casino chips as a payout by a casino. On the other hand, when a player loses a game, a casino takes the casino chips bet (namely placed onto a table as a wager) by the player. In this manner, exchanges of valuables by using casino chips take place on a gaming table.
A casino needs not only to collect income-and-expense information on an automatic gaming machine such as a slot machine with communication but also to count casino chips, to count cash held at a cashier, and the like for checking revenue (income and expense) derived from games and earnings. At a casino or the like facility which is operated 24 hours a day, however, keeping track of revenue (income and expense) derived from games and earnings accurately in real time is difficult. In particular, it is difficult to keep track of revenue (income and expense) derived from games in real time during a dealer continues to play a game of a table game such as roulette, poker or baccarat.
As a conventional technique for managing casino earnings and the like, it has been proposed to connect a casino gaming machine such as a slot machine to a casino control server, input the earnings derived from the casino gaming machine periodically into the casino control server, and then calculate the earnings, gross profit, etc. by the server (for example, Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2006-338230).